Abstract:

United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal four is about quality education. This goal is significant partly because of the humongous numbers of stakeholders and investors in secondary school education all over the world. In Nigeria, there are half a million public and private secondary schools catering to the instructional needs and future careers of 42 million pupils. Parents and guardians, educational agencies and tertiary institutions, among several other groups are interested in the image and reputation of secondary schools. Public relations provides the best communication platform for projecting and affirming the image and reputation of any secondary school that offers quality education. This study examines the public awareness and perception of public relations actions of selected public and private secondary schools in Ota, Ogun State, southwest Nigeria. Built on a theoretical framework of Grunig’s Two-way Symmetrical public relations model, stratified sampling of two hundred and fifty (250) respondents is applied using the questionnaire instrument. Findings indicate that the public relations activities of secondary schools are known majorly through the word-of-mouth channel of communication and during Parents-Teachers’ Associations meetings. The study recommends the creation of public relations departments or the engagement of professional public relations consultants in order to connect positively with parents and guardians, teachers and several other relevant stakeholders and investors in secondary schools in Nigeria.